At Death's Door
by Melandra
Summary: After an epic battle, Neji lies at death's door and these might have been his last thoughts.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.

**At Death's Door**

Neji was in the toughest battle of his life. He had never before fought against an opponent so strong. This…Sound Ninja….Kidomaru was incredible. His skills at analysis, as well as his techniques of long range attacks were the exact counter to Neji's own skills. Neji, skilled in the Gentle Fist technique of his clan required his enemies to be close by. Long range was not his forte. Despite being a prodigy, Neji was slowly being beaten to a pulp. His opponent had quickly theorized his weakness, which was his blind spot, and had created many projectiles aimed towards that exact position. Even though he knew Kaiten, it could not protect him when his Chakra ran low. Meanwhile, despite running amongst the trees and weaving to and fro, Neji was still sustaining serious injuries. After Kidomaru had confirmed his theory, he began preparations to finish Neji off. Kidomaru created his most deadly arrow, took aim and then fired it exactly at Neji's blind spot. The arrow hit Neji at full force.

However, Neji was not called a prodigy for nothing. Even at death's door, Neji was still planning ahead, something he had learnt from Naruto in his Chunin battle with the kunoichi. At the last second, Neji, knowing that the arrow was headed towards his blind spot, had moved slightly, thus avoiding being pierced directly in the heart. Sending his chakra through the web connecting the arrow to Kidomaru, he managed to paralysed his opponent before going to deal the finishing blow.

Now, that situation led to this. He was collapsed next to his now-dead opponent, his body draining of blood, his chakra level close to zero. Was this death? Neji stared upwards at the foliage that was blocking his view of the sky. He could not see his favourite birds flying freely in the sky because of the branches and the leaves but he took comfort in the fact that they were up there. Still there. The wind blew, shaking the branches and causing a few leaves to fall down about him but it went unnoticed because Neji was too preoccupied by the pain and his thoughts.

Slowly, his eyes gradually began to close of their own accord. He was feeling very tired. His body was telling him to go to sleep. Yet, his mind was warning him not to. If he went to sleep, he might never wake again. He tried to distract himself from falling asleep and a familiar face was conjured up. Hinata. His cousin. Puzzled, Neji tried to sift through his thoughts. Even though his body was beginning to feel cold and numb, his mind was still alert. Why was he thinking of her now? His mind quickly flashed through his encounter with her during the Chunin exams. How they had been pitted against one another and his hatred towards the Main family had nearly caused him to murder his cousin.

Even after he discovered the truth behind his father's sacrifice and the duty his father had entrusted to him, he had not been close to accomplishing these duties. Sure, he had taken the first steps towards restoring the relationship between the Main and the Branch families by accepting his uncle, Hyuuga Hiashi's offer of training him. However, he had not even come close to righting the wrong that he had done towards his cousin, Hinata. He was meant to be her protector, just as his father was Hyuuga Hiashi's protector but he had not done any protecting and a lot of harming. He also knew that she was innocent. The cage that he found himself trapped within was not entirely her fault. In fact, on hindsight now, it seemed that she was just as trapped as he was. But what was the use of hindsight now? She had still been the one to face the full brunt of his fury, still been the easy target for all of his pent-up frustrations. He had taunted her, called her a failure and nearly killed her because she refused to surrender. If the instructors had not intervened…… Neji did not want to continue the thought. He had never thought of himself as a cold-blooded murderer. But that day, he might have turned into one. Neji would have shivered if he was not already feeling very cold.

Dimly, he could hear the sounds of people approaching; however the act of opening his eyes to see who they were was too much for him. He could only hope that they were allies. If not, then he was done for and his only regret was that he did not get the chance to apologise to his cousin. That was why her face had appeared and was still present in his head. Neji deduced that when faced with the possibility of death, your conscience seems to want to right the wrongs you had committed in your lifetime. He could now hear people talking above him. A hand brushed gently over his chest where the gaping wound caused by the arrow was and he could feel a warm sort of energy hovering there. After a few seconds, the voice enquired, "Are you awake?"

If you had asked Neji now, he could not have told you if the voice belonged to either a male or a female but even at death's door, he managed a soft , "Hn.." indicating his consciousness.

"Please stay awake." The voice commanded. "We will try to move you. It may hurt but we need to get you back to Konoha to properly treat you."

If he heard any of this he did not give any acknowledgement. The soft answer from before seemed to have sapped him of all his remaining energy. He did try his best to stay awake though. It was not hard. After all, being moved caused the wound in his chest to twinge with pain. Pain was an effective tool for keeping one awake. However, the rest of the journey back to Konoha's medical center was a blur to Neji. His thoughts occasionally flashed to the other members in the group that was gathered to retrieve Sasuke. However, the mainstay of his thoughts was his cousin. He could not die before he told her how sorry he was. He could not die. Those were his last thoughts before he eventually slipped into unconsciousness.

Author's Notes: Am uncertain whether to continue with Hinata's pov/part.


	2. Chapter 2

**At Death's Door**

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.

Part II

When news of Neji's condition reached the Hyuuga mansion, the servants began to whisper quietly behind closed doors, debating the fate of the brightest of the Hyuugas while Hyuuga Hiashi himself looked slightly worried. His nephew's survival was now dependent on the medical ninjas at the Konoha hospital as well as his indomitable will to survive. With his death would mean the end of his brother's line as well as a great lost for the Hyuuga clan because he was the most ingenious member to appear within their ranks in a long time. After all, which fourteen year old could have learnt Kaiten on his own?

Hyuuga Hinata, cousin of Hyuuga Neji was also privy to the news of her cousin's possible death. Although her cousin had been anything but kind to her, Hinata could not bring herself to gloat over his predicament. She always knew the reason behind his behavior. He was not always like this. Her cousin had once loved her. He used to call her '_kawaii' _and they used to play together with him always looking out for her.

"_Neji nii-san, where are we going?" Three year old Hinata had asked her older cousin as he held her chubby right hand in his left and pulled her along. They were outside of the Hyuuga mansion running along the main road and Hinata had never had much experience being on the outside without the supervision of adults. In fact, this was the very first time and she was afraid that they might get into trouble for it. _

"_Don't worry, Hinata-sama, we aren't going very far." Neji responded as he continued to urge her along with little tugs. "I wanted to treat you to something." Just as he said that, Hinata tripped on her own foot and fell onto the dusty main road. She looked up in shock at Neji and her large pale eyes began to turn watery, but being three as the Hyuuga heiress, Hinata knew better than to wail aloud. Loud crying was frowned upon by her father since she was barely weaned. Neji himself had stopped short and stared at her with what was akin to fear in his eyes. He was afraid that despite the risk he was taking to make his cousin happy, he might end up getting into a lot of trouble. However, since she had not started crying, he decided he had better put a stop to it before she began. Besides, his destination was in sight. "Stay here, Hinata-sama," Neji instructed. "I'll be right back." With that, he ran towards the ice-cream man that always stood at the end of the street around this time, his head turning back every few seconds to see if Hinata was still where she was. Each time he turned back to look at her, he would give her a small reassuring smile._

_After giving the ice-cream man his orders, Neji was soon running back towards her with two sticks of ice-cream. When he arrived, he handed her a stick and she stared at it in puzzlement for she had never seen an ice-cream before. Neji began licking his own stick enthusiastically and she took her cue from him and tried licking her own tentatively. It was cold and sweet on her tongue, absolutely delicious, and she squealed excitedly, all thoughts of fear, pain and tears forgotten. It was the first time she had tasted ice-cream. _

Not long after that incident, Neji's father was 'killed' in place of her own father. He had then begun to harbour growing anger and hatred towards her family and especially her because he had blamed them for the death of his father. So even though it was not her fault and that it was unfair for her to endure his hatred, she understood his pain and let it go. She had always treasured that memory because she knew that that was who he really was before he lost his way to anger and hatred. Because he had loved her once.

When Shikamaru came over to the Hyuuga mansion to inform them that Neji was out of critical condition, Hinata was secretly relieved. Outwardly, she stood pale and blank-faced behind her father while Shikamaru reiterated what Shizune had said. Her father had bowed, followed by her after Shikamaru had said his piece and turned to leave. Later, Hiashi had turned to her and told her that they would visit Neji in the morning instead because it was late now. However, Hinata was already making her own plans. After her father had retired to his study, she had gone into the kitchen and began making some miso soup and rice balls. Before long, she had a bento box and the soup packed into a bag and then she went to the get one last item before slipping out of the mansion. It was dark, hence she was not caught.

Arriving at the hospital, she enquired for her cousin's room but the nurse on duty was reluctant to allow her admission due to the late hour. Fortunately, she was called away and Hinata managed to peep over the desk to find name list. After obtaining the relevant information, she hurried to her destination; however, her conflicting thoughts caused her to pause nervously outside his room. How would he react to seeing her? Would he really want her to be the first thing he saw when he woke? Maybe she had better go off, her father was normally right, morning would be a better time to visit. After all, what made her think she was brave enough to face him alone now?

The choice was taken out of her hands though. Just as she was about to convince herself to escape back home, the door opened and she was faced with an astonished looking Tenten. "Oh, Hinata?"

"Tenten-san." Hinata bowed slightly as she greeted the kunoichi, her inbred good manners kicking in automatically.

Tenten rubbed the base of her neck as she smiled awkwardly at Hinata, "You here to visit Neji?" Talk about rhetorical questions and it was at that moment that Neji decided to make his presence felt by clearing his throat and speaking.

"Hinata-sama?"

Hinata managed to get a glimpse of Neji sitting propped up by pillows on his hospital bed, his white eyes staring seemingly piercingly at her and her heart rate increased tenfold. "N…Neji nii-san," she said softly as her face slowly flushed up. There was no going back after all.

Tenten stood uneasily in the doorway between them, looking from Neji to Hinata. She was not sure whether she should stay or leave knowing the bad blood between them. She was afraid that something terrible might happen, however, Neji waved to her, signaling that he was done with her and then fixed his gaze at Hinata. Tenten shrugged inwardly. _Whatever._ It was his business after all. Why should she be so concerned if he did not want her to care. So Tenten slipped past Hinata and walked mutinously towards the entrance of the hospital, leaving Hinata to face her cousin alone.

Hinata entered the room and slid the door closed before daring to look towards her cousin. He was still staring her with a mixture of, she was not quite sure what, but his expression was not its usual blank mask of hatred. Her heart palpitating, Hinata took slow, careful steps towards his bed and placed her bag on his side-table.

"I..I brought some f…f..food for you." She stammered as she deliberately unpacked the bento box, the container holding the soup and the cutlery slowly so as to avoid looking at him. She was trying hard not to stutter because she knew that Neji despised it, however, her nervousness was causing it to happen. She was usually quite panicky before Neji. Once the items were unpacked though, she had nothing else to do but to look at him. She knew she should enquire about his injuries and was trying to summon the courage and the fortitude of mind to ask the question when he suddenly spoke.

"I've eaten already, but thanks."

His polite tone caught her off guard. Neji was normally polite to her in front of the adults in their family but alone he was anything but that. So surprised she was by this that her attempts to form a question was completely wiped from her mind and she could only gape slightly while staring blankly at him. Well, her gaze was not exactly focused on his face so she was more like gaping and staring blankly at his chin.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" Neji asked in puzzlement as his hand reflexively moved to rub at the spot that she was staring at.

His voice broke the spell and she hurriedly shook her head while looking down. Suddenly, his hand went to grab hers. Her shock was evident as was her embarrassment when her face turned red but he continued to grip her hand. While she slowly tried to draw the courage to face him directly, she heard him heaved a loud sigh. "I…this is harder than I thought….I…I," Neji was not used to apologies, especially heartfelt ones so he began to stutter which made Hinata feel weird. Why was Neji stuttering? He never spoke with one before this. Was the injury so bad that it had affected his brain and changed his speech patterns?

As she was about to commiserate with him, she heard him suddenly burst out with, "I'm sorry."

Blinking in confusion, she finally dared to look at him, but only for a second before her eyes flickered elsewhere. "Nii-san?" She murmured softly in an attempt to convey her confusion.

Heaving another loud sigh, Neji released her hand and turned his gaze away from her too. If he had to explain his apology, he did not think he could do it to her face. This was perhaps due to his pride. "I…I'm apologizing for…the Chunin Exam a..and for…." His sentences, although simple, were peppered with pauses here and there. Yes. Apologies were one of the few things Neji did not excel in.

_Neji...thank you._

Hinata smiled slightly before she went to rummage in her bag once again to search for the last remaining item within it. She was pretending not to acknowledge what he was saying. She also wanted to save him from this painful soliloquy of listing the wrongs he had done to her so she thought that perhaps her actions will show him that she had indeed accepted and forgiven him.

She knew this was his favourite even though the first time he shared it with her was also the last time, but maybe today they could change all that. Finally finding the item, she pulled the mini-icebox from her bag and popped the lid, "D..dessert?" she interrupted as she showed him the mini mocchi ice cream she had so thoughtfully packed.

There was a pause before a weak smile broke Neji's somber face as the memory of a long time ago resurfaced and he nodded before taking a piece and biting into it. He understood the meaning behind it and was also grateful towards her for sparing him the agony of repeating the apology and explaining it further. "Thank you."

This was her way of saying truce.

Author's Notes: This is really THE END. Thanks for staying tuned and for all your reviews. I really appreciate them. Gracias.


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